A collection of The Penguins of Madagascar origin stories
by Literaturefangirl
Summary: This fan fiction takes us way back to when the four penguins first hatched. It also explores their childhoods.
1. Four penguin chicks hatch

Penguins of Madagascar origin stories

**Skipper:**

In a penguin colony somewhere in Antarctica, two penguins waited for their offspring to hatch from its egg.

The two penguins talked as they waited.

The offspring yet to hatch was then ready to meet the world and jumped out of the egg, headfirst*.

Head butting the hard outer shell and making his mother fall over backwards.

"Are you alright?" asked the anxious mate.

"Yes, it's just the egg hatched with so much force, that it took me by surprise, Haha!" the mother penguin laughed.

"Well it's definitely NOT a girl, you owe me 5 salmons." The father penguin concluded.

The two penguins turned towards their newly hatched offspring

The chick was small and stocky, he had ice blue eyes, fluffy grey feathers all over his abdomen, legs and flippers and had a distinctive flat head.

The father penguin waddled towards his son and opened his beak wide.

"Come here you fluffy ball of trouble, come have something to eat."

The father penguin came closer to his son's face, placed his beak near his son's beak and regurgitated some fish into it. The little penguin swallowed it quickly, burped and waddled over to his mother for warmth

*And that's why Skipper has a flat head.

Or it was an artistic choice by the DreamWorks crew. You decide.

**Rico:**

A female penguin was incubating an egg in a penguin colony somewhere in Antarctica. She stood patiently while she waited for her mate to return from a fishing trip.

The female penguin was a gentle and delicate bird, so much so, that a strong gust of wind startled her and made her lose balance. She fell on her back on the freezing ice.

The egg she was incubating rolled down the mound of ice with great velocity before coming to a halt.

"Oh no! My baby!" The female penguin exclaimed with worry.

The female penguin slid down the mound on her belly and rushed over and scooped up her egg and held it close to her.

She inspected the egg for damage, but her worse fears had come true. The egg had two cracks on it.

The cracks were superficial and had not penetrated the outer shell but had damaged the egg somewhat nonetheless.

"It'll be alright, my darling." The female penguin whispered as she stroked the egg gently.

Her mate soon arrived. She explained what happened to him

He put a flipper on her shoulder looked over it and inspected the egg. Once he had finished he kissed her and give her words of reassurance.

"It's OK Arianna*, it's still alive, it won't be like the other penguins yes, but at least it is alive and we'll love it no matter what."

Suddenly the egg shuddered and the shell cracked revealing a small black and white head, with ice blue eyes and spiky black feathers on its head.

"Hello little one…" Arianna said to her offspring.

The baby penguin wailed incomprehensible sounds in quite a deep voice for a newly hatched chick.

"What a strong voice! We're going to name you…Rico**. Now open up that beak please" The father penguin said.

The father penguin's beak approached Rico's face, prompting Rico to open his beak. Rico's father then regurgitated some fish into Rico's beak.

Rico closed his eyes, relishing the delicious taste of the fish.

Once Rico had finished the fish he wailed urgently to receive more fish.

"You're a hungry one, aren't you?" Arianna cooed and watched as her beloved mate fed her ravenous son.

Or Rico was hatched normally and had an accident that affected his temporal and frontal lobe that control speech. You decide.

*It means utterly pure in Italian.

** It means strong power in Italian.

**Private:**

A female penguin stood still as she waited for her egg to hatch in a penguin colony in Antarctica.

She looked down at her egg to check for progress. Nothing. The egg still hadn't hatched.

Her mate had taken this opportunity to speak with some acquaintances of his. It was taking so long to hatch, that there was no harm in wandering away from it for a while was there?

However Sam Fishy was wrong, back where his mate was standing, his naughty offspring had decided to hatch the minute he wasn't there.

"Sam! It's hatching, come quickly!" Sam Fishy heard his mate crying out.

Sam waddled as fast as he could towards his mate.

Sam made it just a time to see his offspring's head pop out of the egg.

"You made it just in time!" Sam's mate hugged him in relief.

Sam's turned around and saw that his offspring had fully emerged from its egg.

It was a blessed sight that Sam Fishy saw that day.

His offspring was the cutest baby penguin he had ever seen. He was covered in grey fluff, had ice blue eyes and was small and podgy. In other words downright adorable.

"He is the cutest baby penguin in Antarctica." Sam announced with pride.

"Not just Antarctica Sam…the world!" The mother penguin proudly corrected Sam.

Sam then proceeded to feed his adorable son.

Upon tasting the tasty fish, the chick closed its eyes, jumping and flapping his wings in joy.

**Kowalski:**

"Albert look! I can see its little beak coming out" A female penguin gestured her mate to look in the direction of their egg, as it began to hatch somewhere in a penguin colony in Antarctica.

A little orange beak protruded the round egg, making the shell crack.

The two penguins watched in anticipation…

A little head then fully emerged from the egg, its body soon following.

"He's beautiful Albert! Just look at him!" The female penguin admired her newly hatched son.

The female penguin was right!

The penguin chick was fluffy, with bright ice blue eyes, he was tall and lean with an intelligent expression on his cute black and white face.

The chick looked around its surroundings, ever so curious. He then spotted something appealing to him; an egg shell.

Subconsciously the chick must have realized that this object was important.

He came closer to it, turning his head to admire it from all sorts of angles.

The chick was evidently an appreciator of beauty and art at a young age.


	2. Feeding time and intellectual scars

**Rico:**

Somewhere in Antarctica, a hungry penguin chick begged his exhausted father to feed him.

The father penguin had just returned from a fishing trip to feed his family. The father penguin bent down and prepared to regurgitate in his son's beak.

"FISH!" Rico exclaimed and swallowed some regurgitated fish from his father's beak.

The father penguin's eyebrows raised slightly in amusement.

"FISH!" Rico exclaimed once more for more fish

The father penguin's eyebrows rose greatly.

"FISH!" Rico begged for even MORE fish.

The father penguin's eyebrows knitted together in confusion.  
_How can he still be hungry?_ The father thought.

"FISH?" Rico asked with a cute voice and smile, pushing his luck for more fish.

The father's face softened into a smile and gave in to his son's demand.

Once Rico had eaten all the fish content in his father's stomach, Rico's father picked up his chubby son, moved him near his ear canal and give him a little shake.

He sounded hollow!

Rico's father then placed Rico on the ground then he placed his head directly on Rico's belly and gently tapped it with his flipper.

He wasn't just hearing things, his stomach WAS hollow!

For a final confirmation, Rico's father opened Rico's beak with his two flippers and looked inside. It was massive!

On that day Rico's father just had to face it, his son's stomach had an amazing capacity as did his appetite.

**Kowalski:**

Somewhere in the vast frigid lands of Antarctica stood a female penguin waiting for her son to come back from school. She scanned the crowd of young penguins waddling for her distinctively tall son.

But it wasn't Nikolai's stature that made the female penguin find her son. It was the huge black eye, bruises and scratches on her son's body that caught her attention.

Nikolai* waddled over to his mother and hugged her.

"Hey Momma!" Nikolai said with a smile and puffy eye lids.

"Nikolai Kowalski, what on Earth happened to you?!" The female penguin exclaimed.

"I said to one of the penguins that he had an underdeveloped encephalon…then he punched me in the eye and beat me up…figures." Nikolai crossed his arms and sulked.

"Nikolai you KNOW you shouldn't insult other penguins…" The female penguin lectured her son.

"But Momma, he _did_ have an underdeveloped encephalon, he didn't know that you needed females to make babies and he was older than me!" Nikolai protested.

"Well maybe your teacher hasn't taught your class about that yet, but it doesn't necessarily make them all have underdeveloped encephalons. YOU knew about that because you asked me very early on where baby penguins come from. So be nice and you won't get hit, it's simple." The female penguin explained to Nikolai gently.

"Please don't remind me about that Momma, I know… Ah curse my thirst for knowledge!"

Nikolai pleaded and banged his head down in frustration.

_*Nikolai means victory of the people in Polish,_

I couldn't find a name in Polish that didn't sound too foreign and meant intelligent. So I decided to call Kowalski Nikolai in homage to Nikola Tesla; whom Kowalski refers to his Tesla coils frequently in the show.

Can you guess the identity of the penguin that punched Kowalski's eye and beat him up? 


	3. Precocious student

Sorry about the short chapter guys, but I've run out of ideas.

**Kowalski:**

Somewhere in Antarctica, a penguin teacher was asking her class the answer to a question she had just asked.

"Does anyone know the answer?" She asked.

No response from the class except for a penguin sitting on the front row of the mounds of ice, the students used as makeshift chairs. He waved his flipper left and right eagerly to answer the question.

"Anyone at _all_...?" She asked again in surprise.

Again no response from the class, except for the penguin at the front named Nikolai Kowalski.

_That kid is already way too smart for his age. I want the rest of the class to participate for once_. Mrs Tensedge thought in exasperation.

"Anyone _other_than Nikolai?" She asked for the last time.

Still no response, except for the _always_eager Nikolai.

_Fine I give up, the class is nearly over. I'll just give them homework. _Mrs Tensedge conceded

"No? Fine I want everybody else _except_Nikolai to come up with a five minute oral presentation about the aurora australis*by tomorrow."

Mrs Tensedge instructed the class.

"Class dismissed." She dismissed the class and sighed in relief internally and watched her students groan, pack up their belongings and waddle home.

Nikolai felt crestfallen, he had really wanted to answer the question.

_One day she will give in...hehe_Nikolai thought.

While Nikolai was thinking about his day dream, a small and stocky penguin with a flat head, walked past him and gave him a dirty look.

"Thanks a lot Niko_nerd._" The penguin taunted Nikolai.

_Just think about what Momma said and just ignore the simpleton _Nikolai thought, holding his tongue lest he be beaten up again.

Nikolai said nothing and ignored the penguin and waddled over to his mother who was waiting for him.

"No black eyes this week! I'm so proud of you Niky." Nikolai's mother congratulated him and gave him a hug.

_*Aurora australis is the name given to the aurora borealis when viewed in the Southern Hemisphere, which is where the penguins live._

Mrs Tensedge and some her dialogue belong to Brad Bird.


	4. Mischievous nephew and vengance

*Important announcement*

Never say never people, well except when you are saying never say never...

Your comments, a bit of research and some thought has allowed me to come up with more childhood stories.

Plus I was so eager to write about the penguins meeting each other as children that I miscalculated their ages.

So from now on, consider these stories as taking place in a kind of baby looney tunes alternate universe.

**Private:**

Today was a special day for the Fishy family.

Sam Fishy's brother Nigel was coming over for a visit to meet his new nephew.

"Hey there Nigel, it's good to see you, long time no see eh? Haha!" Sam Fishy greeted his brother.

"It's good to see you too old bean, yes my career as a spy has really kicked off." Nigel replied in an apologetic tone.

"Nigel, this is your nephew Charlie* Fishy." Charlie's mother introduced her son to her brother in law.

"Hullo there Charlie, my name is Nigel, but you can call me Uncle Nigel." Nigel waved his flipper at Charlie.

Due to Charlie's small stature, the only token of affection he could bestow upon his uncle was to hug his leg, and so he did.

"Unca…Nigool" Charlie attempted to pronounce his uncle's name in vain.

"Isn't that cute? Come here Charlie, come and give me a proper hug."

Uncle Nigel gently prised Charlie's small flippers away from his leg, and lifted him to the level of his chest.

Nigel then hugged little Charlie.

Charlie giggled with glee, but like many other children Charlie was not a saint and had a bit of a naughty side.

And so when Charlie noticed his uncle's long, black side burns, a mischievous idea popped in his head and he followed through with it and pulled his uncle's sideburns.

"Ahhh! You naughty little devil! He would make a great interrogator Sammy, hehe." Nigel joked and put his giggling nephew back on the ground.

"I don't think so Nige', he is the sweetest little penguin you'll ever meet." Sam disagreed.

"We'll see, we'll see, he's got his life ahead of him." Nigel smiled.

So the Fishy family spent the rest of the day catching up and Nigel remained vigilant against his sideburn pulling nephew.

_* What name could possibly be cuter than Charlie for Private?! You tell me._

_Plus it is very fitting because it is part of the military messaging system, you know? Charlie, Tango that sort of thing._

** Kowalski, Rico and Skipper:**

_Vengeance will be served against that bully, hehehe. _Nikolai Kowalski thought after he had been clobbered by a stocky penguin in his class for insulting his brain anatomy.

Nikolai dwelt with this thought throughout the remainder of the school day.

So focussed on his thoughts was Nikolai, that he did not try to answer any questions that the teacher had asked.

_Nikolai not trying to answer questions? And I thought I'd seen it all! _Mrs Tensedge thought with astonishment.

Once Mrs Tensedge had finished discussing the material for the second last lesson, she bent down to pick up a slab of ice with learning material in the penguin alphabet carved into it.

While Mrs Tensedge had her head down, a penguin with spiky feathers on his head fired a snowball from his beak at Mrs Tensedge by regurgitating it with great power*.

The penguin with spiky feathers named Rico chuckled with laughter with his flippers covering his beak to try and stifle the laugh, the rest of the class however did not hold back and roared with laughter.

_He's perfect for my accomplice... _Nikolai thought.

"Who threw that? You know that throwing objects in the classroom is strictly prohibited." Mrs Tensedge asked in anger.

Mrs Tensedge waited for the guilty party to confess, many minutes passed, so she decided to give everybody lots of homework.

At the end of the day Nikolai had a talk with Rico and everything was set.

The two penguins took cover behind a pile of snow, waiting for Skipper to exit the classroom.

"Target sighted. FIRE!" Kowalski spotted the target and ordered his accomplice to fire some snowballs at the stocky penguin.

SPLAT! The snowballs hit the target in the rear end, making him fall headfirst into the snow.

"Up high!" Kowalski said and high fived his new friend and they both went home with the rest of the class and joined in laughing at the stocky penguin's plight.

Many abdominal muscles had been exercised that day and many tears of joy were spilled from laughing so hard.

_*Hence the name Rico, meaning great power in Italian._


	5. First taste and Ahead of his time

Please note that Rico's story is a bit gross. You have been warned. I wanted to write a story explaining a canon event

**Rico:**

Arianna, Leonardo* and Rico decided to go for a walk one day.

As they walked Rico spotted some students from his class with their parents.

Some of them were walking, while others swam in the sea or consumed some fish.

Some children were chasing each other, while some wandered off on their own to go on an adventure.

Rico longed to wander off on his own, but he knew that his parents would never allow that to become a reality.

Then Rico's cunning mind came up with a plan. He would wait for his parents to walk amongst the other penguins and when they were talking with the other parents he would sneak off on an adventure.

When the time came, Rico licked his left flipper and smoothed out his spiky feathers to disguise himself and waddled away from the crowd of penguins.

Rico enjoyed this new found freedom, and took in many beautiful sights.

But as always happens when rules are defied, consequences occur…

Rico knew about the penguin's natural predators but he had never seen them in real life, nor see the ramifications of their hunting…

Rico waddled around for some time but soon got hungry and began to crave the succulent taste of fish.

Rico then came across something he believed was fish on the ice.

It was scattered everywhere and resembled the flesh of a grey and white bellied species of fish.

Rico thought it was somebody else's lunch they hadn't finished and since his hunger impaired his judgement he ate some pieces without suspicion.

Rico closed his eyes in anticipation…

But instead of the tasty flavour of fish Rico felt something strange in his beak, so he spat it out.

The strange texture, to Rico's horror was feathers!

The dark flesh wasn't the light grey colour of a fish; it was the dark black feathers of a penguin.

Rico felt disgusted and almost vomited but held the contents of his gut and waddled away as fast as he could to his parents.

And so Rico tasted penguin that day for the first and very last time…

**Kowalski, Rico, Skipper:**

On this particular day, Rico and a flat headed penguin had finished doing their homework at Nikolai Kowalski's residence.

John** was the name of the flat headed penguin that had beaten up Nikolai for insulting his intelligence but as it turns out John learned that it payed off to be friendly to a nerd, because he could help you with homework but most of all he could provide companionship that would nurse his fragile ego caused by the other children in his class avoiding him because of his rough manners and intimidating voice.

Albert Kowalski; Nikolai's father then came over and checked the boy's homework.

When he was satisfied with what he read he congratulated them.

"Congratulations on the exemplary work boys, would you care to taste my new culinary invention as a reward?"

"Of course, we'd love to Dad." Nikolai said in a loud voice and nudged the two penguins with his elbow to agree by nodding.

His father's invention usually turned out to have something dangerously flawed with them, but since it was food he had made, the only thing they could do, would be to be polite and swallow it for his father's sake.

Albert placed little balls of snow imbued with salmon juice on the carved ice table which the boys where using to complete their homework on.

Albert eagerly watched the boys eat his new invention.

Their reaction however was not what he had expected.

"My brain! It's freezing!" Nikolai exclaimed in pain.

Rico had passed out while John just smiled, while his bottom eyelids twitched.

"It's a bit…too cold for my taste, but thank you… Mr. Kowalski." John forced out some polite words.

"Uh…you're welcome" Albert replied with embarrassment and waddled away muttering under his breath something about his invention never catching on.

_* Leonardo means lion-strong in Italian, I wanted a name with a meaning similar to Rico._

_\** I named Skipper, John because it really suits him and after Long John Silver from the book Treasure Island because I like reading classic books, and because Skipper means a ship's captain and Long John Silver takes control of a ship and becomes temporary captain._


	6. Nigel's lullaby

**Private:**

It was a particularly cold and windy night that evening in Antarctica and Charlie Fishy was having difficulty falling asleep. He wailed for comfort to come to him.

The entire Fishy family had spent such a busy day catching up with Nigel and playing with Charlie that Sam Fishy and Pippa* Fishy were exhausted.

Nigel, who was used to days of exertion, took this opportunity to be a gentleman, by letting Sam and Pippa sleep by taking care of his nephew.

Nigel rubbed his eyes, got up and waddled quietly to where Charlie was lying in between his parents.

Despite the combined warmth of his parents Charlie was still in want of comfort.

He was trembling, his eyes red from crying, his cheeks saturated with tears.

Nigel scooped Charlie up with his flippers and carried him a few meters away from his parents, as to not awaken them.

Nigel sat down, and wiped the tears from Charlie's face.

Charlie watched his uncle with his big adorable blue eyes, waiting for what would come next.

What came next was this…

Nigel rocked Charlie gently with his flipper and sang him a varied version of a familiar lullaby.

(Sing to the tune of Hush little baby.)

"Hush, little Charlie, don't say a word.  
Nigel's gonna buy you a listening device.

And if that device is not listening.  
Nigel's gonna buy you a camera for surveilling.

And if that camera lets people trespass.  
Nigel's gonna buy you a looking glass.

And if that looking glass gets broke.  
Nigel's gonna buy you a detector of smoke.

And if that detector wasn't helpful.  
Nigel's gonna buy you a piranha filled pool.

And if that pool freezes over.  
Nigel's gonna hire you a soldier.

And if that soldier isn't smart.  
Nigel's gonna buy you a scientific chart.

And if that chart falls down.  
You'll still be the sweetest little baby in town."

Upon completion of the lullaby, Nigel noticed that his nephew had fallen asleep.

He had a facial expression of contentment and tranquility.

Nigel then waddled quietly to Sam and Pippa and placed their son back in the space between their bodies.

Nigel then lay down on the ground and fell asleep.

* * *

***I picked the name Pippa because it sounds English and because it is the female version of the name Phillip which means horse lover and I wanted Private's mother to have a name related to Lunacorns.**


End file.
